1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present application generally relate to multimedia processing and editing systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for summarizing video data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because of the ongoing proliferation of multimedia capturing devices (e.g., image data/video data recording devices) within society, advancements in multimedia processing technology (e.g., image data/video data editing systems) progressed immensely in recent times. Conventional video data editing software (i.e., ADOBE® PREMIERE® ELEMENTS where PREMIERE is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif.) can be used to cut a video sequence at various positions and rearrange the frame ordering. Such software also removes frames from and/or adds frames to any position within the video sequence. The video data editing software also identifies various content (i.e., objects or people) within the frames of the video sequence. This may be performed automatically by the video data editing software or manually by a user. For example, the user selects a person and annotates the video sequence with corresponding identity data (i.e., a name).
The video data editing software deletes some frames and stores other frames as a summary of the original video sequence. The video data editing software automatically summarizes the video sequence using various data extracted from the frames of the video sequence, such as motion information and/or quality information, but not of the content identified within the frames. Unfortunately, the conventional video data editing software is limited to implementing summarization technologies that cannot identify frames of interest for the summary based on content that is desired by the user. The video data editing software cannot be used to retain frames having the desired content while discarding any frames having unnecessary or extraneous content. For example, the video data editing software cannot select frames that feature certain individuals.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus for summarizing video data.